Multi-agent systems for scalable internet of things security

Abstract

Providing effective and scalable real-time security to Internet of Things devices can be a challenging task given the limited computational capacity of portable devices and a significant volume of network traffic. Multi-Agent Systems have proven to be a valuable tool in the areas of cyber security, distributed networks and legacy systems because of their scalable and flexible architecture. In this paper, we present a novel implementation of a Multi-Agent System for use within, or to support, Internet of Things networks through the distributed processing of security events to offload the computational cost of processing data from Internet of Things devices. In particular, domain experts can add new agents to existing systems which can automatically work with preexisting agents without manual reconfiguration. The scalability of this deployment model makes it suitable for a broad range of environments including dynamic and large-area networks.